Inside the Photographer’s Studio - Laura Jalbert
The Eco-Conscious Foodie
November 14th, 2022
By Anna Prudhomme @annaprudhomme
When entering French photographer Laura Jalbert’s home studio in East London, there is no question of what she focuses her photography on: bottles of wines are piled up in the corridor while a multitude of jars filled up with spices, dried mushrooms, flours or nuts decorates the walls. Ceramic plates, and cookbooks are crawling on the shelves and I notice a garlic-shaped flower pot sitting next to a Madeleine mould, making every single item of Laura’s apartment food themed.
Ati Manel Spiced Mussels, shot for Provisions, London, 2022
Soft blue eyes and a timid grin on her face, Laura Jalbert grabs an enormous earthenware teapot and offers me a cup. She sits on the couch, facing a wide bay window overlooking the canal, and enjoys the sunlight while I get prepared to do the interview. She’s 32 years old and has been working as a freelance food photographer in London for the past 4 years. Having just finished shooting a pastry cook book for a French publishing house, she just worked on the Christmas dinner editorial for Taste France Magazine.
Laura studied history of art for seven years before deciding to focus on her one true love : food. “My first and forever passion has always been eating!” exclaims Laura. She first decided to launch a food blog called Les dents du bonheur (Lucky Teeth in English), taking photos, sharing recipes and learning on the go what she had always wanted to learn. “I did very crappy pictures at first” confess Laura who was entirely self-taught. She then got hired to create communication content by a startup delivering organic and local food in Lyon. She visited the producers, got better at photography and learnt the basics of videography.
“My first and forever passion has always been eating!”
Her mum being an artist, as was her grandfather before that, Laura grew up surrounded with art. She studied image composition during her bachelor’s degree, and found building pictures was quite an intuitive process. “I love photography when it makes people feel things, and I’d say I succeed in making them hungry,” said Laura giggling.
Viennoiserie Brioche Feuilletée Abricot Vanille, shot for the cookbook 'Viennoiserie, Leçons en pas à pas' by Cyrille Van der Stuyft, Éditions du Chêne, 2022 (to be published 30/11/22)
Viennoiserie Sacristain,shot for the cookbook 'Viennoiserie, Leçons en pas à pas' by Cyrille Van der Stuyft, Éditions du Chêne, 2022 (to be published 30/11/22)
Viennoiserie Roulé tout Chocolat,shot for the cookbook 'Viennoiserie, Leçons en pas à pas' by Cyrille Van der Stuyft, Éditions du Chêne, 2022 (to be published 30/11/22)
She thought of becoming a chef but could not handle the pressure. “I like to take time. I’m a calm and quite slow person,” admits Laura who organised a supper club in London around French dishes but found it too stressful to keep it going. “After that experience, I decided to fully focus on photography,” said Laura. She first got commissioned by a French organic wine company called Pineau Bleu to create and shoot several recipes to accompany each of their bottles. To create her images, she studied the wine’s profile and according to the season created meals fitting their characteristics. Looking at the colour of the labels, she also set up scenes and began getting into food styling.
Laura has always been a curious foodie. As a baby, from her highchair she would point at her parent’s meal wanting to try it all. One of the first words she pronounced was actually “jus” (“juice” in French), and she was fond of mopping her plates with bread, a memory she keeps dear to her heart (and a practice she never stopped). Born in the south of France, where local products are at the heart of their cuisine, Laura cherishes healthy dishes with few but quality ingredients. “Less is more,” exclaims Laura who loves minimalistic, simple but effective recipes which highlight organic products. Using only some onions, a large quantity of garlic, a bit of laurel and spices, her most successful recipe is actually a simple tomato sauce.
Botanical at Kew Gardens, shot for Company of Cooks, London, 2022
To find fresh and local vegetables, she shops at Broadway market’s greengrocers, and goes to her partners’ shop, which imports quality products from France, Italy and Portugal to select most of the dairy products and meat she needs for shoots. As with the food she loves, her photography is unpretentious, honest and simple. “I really don't think it [food] needs much styling, the amount of work that's been put in making a cheese and or a croissant is enough!” said Laura. Highlighting quality products using good lighting, with no artifice is the way she found to stay true to her love for culinary art.
“I really don't think [food] needs much styling, the amount of work that's been put in making a cheese and or a croissant is enough!”
But she didn’t always work that way : “When I began I used a lot of props, flowers, or fake crumbs nicely arranged, and I unsaturated too much.” She follows : “The pictures would then be colder... but blue-grey food isn’t appetising, right?”. Today, Laura likes to keep editing to a minimum, as in her opinion even slight changes in colour in photographs is tricking the client. “I try my best to stay close to the reality, and reflect the personality of the dishes,” said Laura, concluding on her professional ethics.
Christmas in a box, shot for Vins de Bourgogne, London, 2021
Provisions cheese board on a bespoke ceramic platter created by Valentine Benoist, London, 2021
Using mainly natural lighting, this French photographer prefers to shoot in the morning. Creating images of different ingredients on a neutral background, with simple props, to make sure that nothing overpowers the food she’s shooting. With two micro and macro zoom lenses, she gets into the textures of the plates.
In her opinion small flaws are what makes a plate appear real and beautiful, a style reminiscent of the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic (the appreciation of imperfect and incomplete beauty). All around the studio I found charming ceramics made in this style. “I work very closely with a ceramist called Valentine Benoist,” explains Laura, “her plates are all hand made, a bit wobbly, it’s those little faults that I like the most.” Her favourite piece right now is a grey textured cake tray, something that she also uses as a cheese display. “It’s simple and very minimalistic, so I use it a lot,” said Laura, who hates over consumption, “I prefer to have a few very elegant and versatile pieces.”
When needing special props, she hires them at a supplier in North London, and, unlike a lot of food photographers, she never uses spray products to make the food shinier or glittering, keeping them edible. “I don't like to waste,” explains Laura who almost always eats the food she shoots - the only trick the passionate foodie might use is applying olive oil with a brush on meat if it dries up quickly. Working with local and organic products made with love, throwing them away seems preposterous to Laura: “When I can’t eat them, I give them away,” says the photographer, reflecting on her passion for a low carbon emission practice.
Viennoiserie Gaufre Liegeoise, shot for the cookbook 'Viennoiserie, Leçons en pas à pas' by Cyrille Van der Stuyft, Éditions du Chêne, 2022 (to be published 30/11/22)
Viennoiserie Galette Frangipane Praliné Noisette Chocolat, shot for the cookbook 'Viennoiserie, Leçons en pas à pas' by Cyrille Van der Stuyft, Éditions du Chêne, 2022 (to be published 30/11/22)
Last month, she started making vinegar using all the wines she had left. Her boyfriend being in the wine industry, he often brings back half-filled bottles that she pours in an enormous jar waiting for it to ferment. Cutting the glass bottles in half, she creates candlesticks and flower pots. In her garden on the banks of the canal, she grows beans, strawberries, or celery but also fresh herbs such as rosemary, basil or laurel that she then uses in her cooking.
“Blue-grey food isn’t appetising, right?”
Laura’s father is the director of a biological station in Camargue, acting for the preservation of the Mediterranean Sea’s fauna and flora. Due to this Laura has always been aware of the absolute necessity that is protecting the environment. One way to do it - as we all know it by now - is eating less meat, stop wasting food and buying local and organic as much as possible. “That is the kind of eating habits I want to promote in my pictures: highlighting the beauty of artisanal products; and foregrounding the savoir-faire of winemakers, chefs, and everyone else in the industry acting every day to nourish us with this philosophy!” concluded the French Photographer.
Seafood date, London, 2021
About Laura Jalbert
Laura Jalbert is a self-taught recipe developer, food stylist and photographer. Under the banner Jaja Food Studio, Laura offers content creation (recipe development, food styling, photography) and social media management.